Sakura
by Itachilova101
Summary: How was it possible for me to die and yet still be alive? Why was I in Konoha, but the village was now called Tokyo and why did Sasuke seem so happy? And who was that pink haired angel on his arm? Was any of this real? ItaSakuSasu Semi-AU
1. Prologue — The End

A/N: The results of my hiatus... what wonderful things those are. Boring, but wonderful!

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In order for one thing to begin, another has to end. In this case, I had to lose my life in order to make room for a new one, a better one, a more worthwhile one. And, of course this may seem repetitive, but, in order for this new life to begin... I had to die.

"Itachi! It's time for you to die!"

I had never feared death. It's true, I may have fought for my life on more than one occasion, taking lives to maintain my own existence, but self preservation doesn't exactly equate to "Fear of death", now does it?" So...

I grunted as the searing pain hit my chest right above my heart and I half coughed-half gagged, blood dribbling out of my mouth. My hand went up to clasp the wrist that belonged to my opponent, but I didn't try to force his hand away. I only held him in place as I stared into the cold, dark, hateful eyes, stained with a maturity I had helped to create within him.

So... when my brother's chidori pierced my chest and he literally held my heart in the palm of his hand, I realized that death was inevitable and I didn't try to fight it—not that I could have had I chosen that path. Sasuke could rip my heart from my chest in moments.

As the horrible chirping from the chidori died away and the bright light it caused fizzled out, all that was left was the sound of my blood slowly pulsing through my veins, going slower and slower. The sound sickened me and I knew I had to drown it out somehow.

"Bro... ther..." I choked out, forcing my voice out of my throat despite all the extra pain it caused in my chest, a hot sweltering pain that licked at the flesh surrounding my brother's hand. "I-I... I'm..."

I could no longer see anything; everything was just a series of smudged blurs. My breathing was ragged and my knees trembled, threatening to buckle under my weight.

"I'm sorr—"

"I don't want to hear it!" Sasuke exclaimed angrily, his hand clenching my heart, forcing its weak, irregular tattoo of beats to stop altogether. I let out a cry, my knees following through with their threat and giving out, letting me fall to the ground. Sasuke seemed quite reluctant to let go of my chest, however, and there was a horrible tearing feeling inside my chest as I hit the earth and then I was thrust into darkness.

"Sasuke-kun, no!" a faintly familiar voice exclaimed, echoing through the obscurity, "You weren't supposed to kill him! He can't die, we still need him!"

And then nothingness overtook me.

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A/N: It's very short, but, then again, it's a prologue, so that's allowed. Please review to tell me what you think so far


	2. Awakening To A Nightmare

A/N: This, my friends, is where the plot begins!

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Beep-beep... beep-beep... beep-beep... beep-beep...

Good God, I felt like shit. My head ached, my throat felt dry and sore. While the rest of my body felt weightless, completely detached, my limbs were like leaden weights anchoring me to whatever sort of consciousness I was in.

There was an itch on my nose. I tried to raise one of my leaden arms to scratch it, but I couldn't seem to move.

Then, I heard a gasp and the dark world I'd been anchored to seemed to ripple, lose focus. "His nose just twitched! I swear I saw it!"

"Will you calm down? This isn't anything to get too worked up about. He may be in a coma, but he can still hear our voices. Any twitches he may make are just in response to the sounds of our voices. It happens, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's waking up. That's what Sakura told me, anyway."

Were they talking about me? I couldn't tell and, with my mind growing more lucid with my questions, the itch got worse. I was getting irritated.

"L-Look, his finger twitched! His eyelids... they're moving, too! Oh, God, he's _moving_!"

"Jesus, woman, will you please _shut up_!"

Silence.

"That was uncalled for. If Itachi can hear you, he's probably thinking you're a real douche."

No, actually, if I had the use of my hands, I would applaud the man. The girl squealing so close to my ear was really getting on my nerves. Did she have no bedside manners whatsoever? Apparently not.

"Please, just hush. You'll be kicked out if you're too loud."

_Then, by all means, yell,_ I wanted to tell the woman, _I doubt you're of much help in dealing with this "coma" I seem to be in. _

And then I felt it. Consciousness, thoughts, life. I felt them all and I was suddenly certain that something was horribly wrong. I wasn't sure what it was, maybe a premonition that I wouldn't like what I found when I opened my eyes, maybe it was my imagination, or maybe it wasn't. I couldn't be sure what it was, but it only urged me closer to the brink of awareness.

And then my eyes opened and what I had feared came to reality. Standing over me was Sasuke, his expression looking a bit perturbed and very tired. And then he looked down at me, his eyes widening. The first thing he said was, "Holy mother of shit!"

I blinked. _What_ did he just say?

"What did you just—" that annoying voice began and then cut off when she leaned over me and looked in my eyes. She leaned closer as if to be sure that the sight of my opened eyes wasn't a trick of her eyes and then poked my cheek.

"Wha—" I began and then went into a fit of coughing. My throat really _was_ sore!

"Good Lord," the girl breathed and then stood, trotting over to the door and shouting, "Nurse! Nurse! We need a nurse!"

I looked between Sasuke and the blond girl, wondering what I was to make of this. I wasn't dead. Sasuke wasn't killing me right now. He was just staring at me like I was a ghost. _Was_ I a ghost? No, no, of course I wasn't.

"I-Itachi..." Sasuke whispered and then his voice broke into a grin. "You're awake!" When I winced at the pain his exclamation shot through my skull, he smile apologetically and said a little quieter, "You're awake."

I nodded and shot him a dubious look. But... if I was alive, why did Sasuke seem so damn happy about it? Now he could put me through a lifetime of misery as I had done to him? Now he could have the pleasure of killing me again? These guesses were quite possible, but I feared that they weren't the real answer. I feared that the truth was something much worse.

"Sasuke-kun? Ino?" a new, but still familiar, voice asked, the sound of footsteps tapping on the tiled floor following the lovely sound of her voice, "What's going—oh, Itachi, you're awake."

Finally! There was some sanity! I turned to the first person to show some composure at the sight of me to see a rather pretty girl. My first thought was that she was an angel in a lab coat. She was a short girl, the curves of her waist quite visible through the coat, her face round, her eyes the color of jade. Her bubblegum pink hair was definitely an eye-catcher, but far from gaudy or unflattering. In fact, the pink locks accented her eyes beautifully. This girl reminded me of a cherry blossom bloom in spring.

My second thought, however, was that she was Haruno Sakura, student to the great Tsunade, thought to have already surpassed the Sannin, best friend to the Kyuubi container and—oh, how I rued this last detail—lifelong grudge-holder toward m for ruining Sasuke's life and thus taking him from her. A _devil _in a lab coat! A rather angelic-looking devil in a lab coat, which made for a much more dangerous threat.

"Well, well," my own personal version of Satan said cheerfully, breaking the silence, "Welcome back to the world of the living."

Welcome back indeed... I wanted nothing more than to go back into my coma. If I was to be at the mercy of Konoha villagers, I would have much rather preferred my painful, heart-breaking (literally) death by Sasuke's Chidori.

"Just allow me to check your vital signs, please," she continued, taking out a flashlight. She shined it in my eyes, nearly blinding me with its brightness, and then she wrote something down on a clipboard that had been attached to the end of the bed I was in. She took out a stethoscope and put it to my chest, saying, "Deep breaths" and I did as told. She wrote something else down. After a few more tests, she nodded. "You're obviously not a zombie, so I'd imagine you've made it out of your coma."

I would have shrugged nonchalantly had it not caused a quick flash of pain in my shoulder.

Haruno placed a comforting hand to my shoulder and advised, "I wouldn't make any unnecessary movements. Your wound hasn't completely healed and we're worried it might reopen.

Ah, my Chidori wound. If only Sasuke was capable of carrying out the simplest task. I mean, how could he literally rip out my heart and still fail in killing me? My younger brother was hopeless when it came to the art of dispatching kin.

"Itachi-kins!" the blond exclaimed, practically pushing Sakura out of her way and pouncing on me, "I've missed you so, so much! You have no idea how hard it was for me to come here every day just to see you play vegetable with the other invalids in this smelly little hospital! I'm so glad you're awake now, though, so we can catch up!"

I would have groaned, but I'm pretty sure the dry skin lining my throat would crack from the effort. Who was this girl, anyway?

"Ino," Haruno said as though to answer my unspoken question, "Itachi needs rest right now. He's probably very tired and confused."

She was right, though I wasn't so much tired as I was confused.

"Come on," the blond apparently called Ino scoffed, "He's been sleeping for six friggen months, how much more rest could he possibly need?"

"Ino," Sasuke said warningly, "Sakura is the doctor here, not you. She knows what she's saying."

"But—" Ino sighed and relented with a reluctant "Fine" before she and Sasuke walked out the door. "Ooh, just let me kiss him goodbye!" she exclaimed and there was the sound of a scuffle as Sasuke apparently dragged her away.

"No," my younger brother said firmly.

Sakura chuckled sheepishly, eying me tentatively. "Some way to wake up, huh?"

I eyed her distrustfully. What was she planning?

She went to the bedside table where a pitcher of water sat on a tray with a few cups. She filled one of the cups and helped me sit up slightly as she poured the liquid into my mouth. Then, she laid me back down and fixed my covers, smiling. "Now you should sleep. I'll tell all the other nurses you're awake and everything, so they'll come check on you periodically, okay." She once again straightened my covers and then left.

I had never been so humbled in my life... I'd bet that was her plan! She was trying to ruin my dignity in order to force me to bend to her will! I wouldn't put it passed a Konoha shinobi.

I was asleep again before I could think up any more conspiracies against me.

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A/N: I'm going to try to make long chapters in this story! X3 And this is about three or four hundred words longer than my usual chapters, so I hope this is a good start! Please review to tell me what you think! X3


	3. Just a Dream?

A/N: I don't much care for this chapter, I find it boring. But, unfortunately, I had some trouble writing this one mainly because I couldn't decide who should break the news to Itachi and how. So please don't give up on this story because of a crappy chappy... ^^;

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A few days passed slowly and uneventfully and there was no sign of anybody trying to interrogate me, kill me or torture me. But I still remained firm. They were probably luring me into a false sense of security so that they could get the information from me a little easier. But it was still getting very irritating, waiting for the day to come when Konoha would strike.

And then came the day when my doubts and my assertions came to a rather high speed bump...

"Itachi, it really _is_ you!"

I looked up to see the two faces that had haunted my dreams for years standing in the doorway. Uchiha Mikoto and Fugaku stood in the room, looking just as they always had, only a little older. They had thin age lines on their faces, strings of grey in their hair. The only real change was the large smiles and tear-filled eyes.

I couldn't help but choke on the air I'd been breathing in and my eyes practically bulged from their sockets. Wait, no, this could _not_ be right! My parents were dead, I'd killed them. They were not here, standing before me!

This was a genjutsu. Or maybe they were a mixture of shadow clone and transformation. The Konoha shinobi were finally cracking down and they were pulling out the big guns first. Konoha had truly taken up a knack for being cruel and unusual.

"Itachi," my "mother" whispered, rushing forward. She threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly.

Okay, so I could feel the embrace, so it wasn't a genjutsu. That didn't mean they weren't clones, though.

"Welcome back, Son," Father said, his voice calm and even, but I could see the tears shining in his eyes. He was trying to keep from showing just how shaken he was to see me, but he wasn't very good at it. This wasn't the man I remembered. Konoha shinobi weren't very good at Transformations, it seemed.

Then, Haruno came in and stopped. "Uchiha-san," she said, looking a bit surprised, "The nurses let you in here?"

"We don't need to ask some nurses for permission to see our son," Mikoto said sweetly, but there was definitely a hint of threat in there.

Haruno sighed and said, "We still haven't gotten any investigations done on his mental well-being. In order for us to perform the tests accurately, he needs to remember things on his own. I had informed the nurses to keep you from seeing him, but I can see that you managed to bypass them."

Mother glared at Haruno. Haruno glared right back.

"In other words, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," she said, no longer hinting at her meaning. "I was just about to ask him a few questions, so if you wouldn't mind leaving, I'd appreciate it."

At first, Mother looked shocked and indignant, then just angry. She turned to me and kissed my forehead, ignoring how I tried to dodge it, and took Father's arm before walking away. "Bye, Dear, I'll be back!"

I glared at her. So falsely cheerful... I hated it.

Haruno closed the door when the couple left and sat at my bedside. She said softly, "I need to ask you a few questions."

I turned my glare on her. "And so the interrogation begins."

She giggled. "Funny. Sarcasm is a good sign. Now then, do you remember what year it is?"

I paused. What year? What did that have to do with anything? But still, I couldn't answer even the simplest of questions. I shrugged.

She nodded. "It's 2010 now."

Twenty... ten...? What did that mean?

"Do... Do you remember what put you in your coma? Any of the events that led up to it? Anything at all, even if the memory is vague."

"Sasuke attacked me," I answered, allowing some irritation to leak into my voice. I had heard that Haruno adored Sasuke endlessly, so to reveal to her the darker side of his nature would definitely be enjoyable. "With his chidori. Right in my chest."

But, instead of pain or fear or disgust, all I saw on the woman's face was confusion. "He attacked you? And what's a Chidori? I've never heard of it before."

I blinked, unable to hide my surprise. I had seen many interrogation tactics, had used most of them, but I had never heard of—let alone seen—somebody deny the truth of their captive's downfall as a means to get information. And the kicker was that she actually seemed genuinely confused.

"Sasuke, he attacked me with the Chidori. You know, the big ball of electricity Kakashi taught him to use?"

"I-I'm sorry, Itachi, but I don't know what you're talking about. Sasuke-kun has never lifted a hand in violence for as long as I've known him." Her expression hardened when I scoffed. "Anyway, moving on. Do you remember anything about your life before the accident?"

I knew I had sworn not to answer any of her questions, but I was intrigued to see what she would say to my life's story. Would she feign ignorance about that, also? So, I answered, "I lived in Konoha until I was twelve, performed the Uchiha massacre, left Konoha, joined Akatsuki and dedicated all of my time to capturing the Jinchuuriki and extracting the demon from inside of him."

"Jinchuuriki?"

"Naruto-kun," I clarified dryly.

Haruno sighed, raking her hands through her hair. "You have quite an imagination, Itachi." I must have looked as shocked as I felt because she giggled and told me, "You were in a coma for six months and you had quite a bit of head trauma, so I wouldn't be surprised that you have some amnesia. And, of course, since comas are like deep sleeps, you would have dreamed and I'd imagine that your dreams replaced those memories you lost."

I'm pretty sure my jaw fell open, but I wasn't certain. I'm pretty sure I lost all sense of feeling in my body out of shock. "You're trying to tell me that my entire life was a _dream_?"

"I'm sorry, Itachi, but there is no place called Konoha. We're in Tokyo and Sasuke-kun didn't attack you, you were injured in a car wreck. And I don't know what the Uchiha massacre, Akatsuki or Jinchuuriki are, but I've never heard of any of this before and I've known you since forever."

Toe-key-oh? What the hell kind of name was that? And what was a car wreck? I didn't understand any of this. A dream... no, that wasn't possible. She was screwing with my mind, that was the only possible answer. "You're going quite far for a few answers about the Akatsuki, Haruno."

Haruno sighed. "Alright. Well, your external wounds have, mostly, healed, so I guess we'll have to work on that Amnesia." She smirked. "Be prepared for a reality check, Uchiha."

I glared at her and she only smirked wider. If I had disliked this woman before, I despised her now.

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A/N: =.= Please don't flame me...


	4. Questions and Answers

A/N: I shall not go below 1000 words, I shall not go below 1000 words, I shall not go below 1000 words, I shall not go below...

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The door was unlocked. The only thing keeping me in bed was an IV filled with a liquid that was supposed to be a food substitute until I was able to handle solid food. No guards, no ropes, no threats. When it came to detaining a prisoner, Konoha really left much to be desired.

I forced myself to get up, ignoring the pain that erupted from the wound on my shoulder, and swung my feet over the side of the bed. I hissed when my warm feet touched the cold floor, but I forced myself onward. I slowly pushed myself off of the bed and, even while holding onto the bedside table for support, I hissed at the exertion.

Then, my knees buckled and I fell straight onto the floor. I grunted in pain as the IV needle was pulled out and I growled in frustration. I tried to push myself back up, but my legs remained uncooperative.

_Goddamn it!_

"Ita—" Haruno began, walking into the room. She paused when she saw me and then rushed over, exclaiming, "Itachi! Your wounds! I told you not to move, didn't I?"

"Yeah, like I'm going to listen to a Konoha shinobi," I replied, my voice a low growl, "I'm not sticking around just to be interrogated and killed."

Haruno sighed and helped me back into the bed and put the IV needle back in my hand. "Today, Itachi, we're going to go over your past so that, when you're discharged, you hopefully won't be so confused. First, I'd like to tell you that you absolutely _will not_ be interrogated and killed. We don't do that to friends here."

I quirked a brow, but stayed silent, waiting.

"My name is Haruno Sakura and I'm dating your brother, Sasuke-kun. You and I are best friends and you're dating my friend, Ino. The couple that came in the other day were your parents. Sasuke-kun did not attack you, but he was in the car with you when you crashed... he'd been driving. He wasn't hurt badly—only had a few scrapes and some bruises—but he felt horrible. It took us forever to make him stop blaming himself for your injuries.

"Anyway. The city we live in is Tokyo, in Japan. Any questions so far?"

I blinked slowly, folding my arms over my chest, which hurt my still-injured shoulder, but I put that to the back of my mind so I could say, "You lost me at that part where you said I'm dating Ino."

Haruno's smile grew and she nodded. "It's true."

"And Ino is that insufferable blond who can't shut up for the life of her and has a strange compulsion to call me 'Itachi-kins'?"

She nodded again. "That would be Ino. You used to love it when she called you that."

"Was I insane?"

"Nope."

I sighed and massaged the bridge of my nose for a moment. Okay, I could get through this... I could just skip passed that little bit of information and just work on the other things. I needed to find a hole in Haruno's story where I could reveal her lies. I couldn't let her belief that I was courting that... _pest_... get the better of me.

I cleared my throat and had been about to ask something when the door opened and Sasuke walked in. He had a smile on his face until he saw Haruno and then his eyes narrowed almost suspiciously. His tone was light, however, when he asked, "What are you two doing? Are you guys having a tryst behind my back?" The chuckle that followed his question seemed forced.

My eyes turned to Haruno to see her reaction and found her face was a little flushed, her eyes cast downward to the floor. Was that... guilt? I had no chance to really look and see because, as soon as the expression crossed her face, it was gone and she was smirking at Sasuke. "Oh, yeah, we were about to get eloped."

Sasuke flinched, but his smile widened. "Funny," he replied and it had probably been meant to sound genuine, but it only sounded angry.

I quirked a brow. Haruno had said that she was romantically involved with my younger brother and yet the tension was so great in the room now that Sasuke was here I was sure I could cut it with my kunai.

Kunai... kunai! That was it! I turned to Haruno. "Where are my clothes?"

Haruno blinked in surprise, but answered, "The clothes were ripped to shreds by the paramedics trying to help you, but we kept all of the belongings you had on you. The clothes were thrown out."

"And in all those belongings was my weapons' pouch?"

"Your what?" Sasuke asked, his brow furrowed, "Did you say _weapons' pouch_? Why would you have a weapons' pouch?"

Haruno sighed and told me, "I still haven't told them about your amnesia and your dreams." She turned to Sasuke and said, "I was speaking to him about some important things about his past—" She rolled her eyes when he glared warningly at her. "So if you could please leave so that he won't be distracted."

Sasuke's glare grew even darker, but he turned and stalked out of the room, closing the door with exaggerated gentleness on his way out.

Haruno sighed. "I'm going to hear about this later on. I shouldn't have egged him on like that, but I couldn't help it."

"Egged him on how?"

She turned as though she had just realized I was in the room and she smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Itachi, I was thinking out loud. I kind of do that when I'm stressed and, well... Sasuke-kun's been stressful lately." She sighed again and added quickly, "Anyway, back to what we were talking about... What were we talking about?"

"Why have things been stressful for you two?" I asked, changing the subject back to Sasuke, my eyes narrowing. From what I had gathered from spies I'd had kept on Sasuke, Haruno had been infatuated with him to a level that it had become unhealthy, but Sasuke, considering who and what he was, was both unable and unwilling to return her feelings. He'd made an ass of himself to keep her at arms' length and he had hurt her.

Had he hurt her? ...Not that I cared or anything. It was simply for curiosity's sake that I wondered this. Though, of course, Sasuke had been taught from an early age to fight fair and, while I hadn't exactly been the best one to lead by example, he would still know what was good and what was bad. If he was hurting this girl, this girl who loved him so much she would most definitely take it all, it certainly was not fair play.

Haruno cleared her throat and changed the subject back to him. "You're going to be discharged in a couple of days. We'll do more talking then, okay?"

Though I was still curious, I nodded. If it was any of my business, she would come and talk to me. Everything else was obviously not my business and I would do best not to make it my business.

So, I watched as Haruno left and then closed my eyes. I had definitely sensed that there was something... not right... about Sasuke and I was now determined to figure that out.

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A/N: ... 1000 words, I shall not go below 1000 words, I shall not go below 1000 words...


	5. I'm Sorry

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, everybody, but I started working on Revelation and it was sort of... well, I'll be honest: It was much more fun to write because of the really weird plotline to it. X3 But still, I worked my butt off to get the chapter finished!

I'll warn you, it's not very good because my brain kind of went kaput half way through, but I did what I could!

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"Itachi-kins!"

_Dear Lord... _I looked up from my unappetizing meal (I would have preferred staying to my liquid diet than eat the hospital's congealed pea soup) to greet my even less appetizing visitor. I watched her with disinterest as she literally danced into the room and then stopped at the foot of my bed, her face flushed with excitement.

"Guess what!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands with delight.

"This is the coma and everything that happened in my supposed dreams was the reality?"

"No, silly!" the blond exclaimed, patting the air with a hand, giggling at me as though I was just the _cutest_ thing _ever_! "You're going home today!"

"Home," I murmured. By home, did she mean back to the world that made sense (because, surely, a world where you can do magic using sign language made much more sense to me than the fact that girls like this Ino were the ideal girlfriend-material in whatever screwed up world this was) or did she mean my "home" on this twisted little planet? I was going to put my money on the latter.

Ino nodded. "That's right!" Her lower lip jutted out and she leaned forward, her hands propping her up on the bed at the perfect angle to give me a _spectacular_ view of her cleavage. "I've been so awful lonely for you while you were in your coma! I had to eat all alone and sleep all alone and I almost didn't think I'd be able to take it anymore!"

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. She thought _she_ had it rough? "Yes," I agreed dryly, "It must have been very hard for you. Poor baby."

She nodded, smiling so happily at how I understood her. I don't think she caught on to my sarcasm. "Right! But now that's all over because you're coming home with me! Isn't it just so totally awesomely wonderful?!"

"Amazing..."

"Too bad the amazing-ness is being postponed," Haruno said with way too much amusement, eying me with wry amusement. She knew I wasn't looking forward to Ino's company and she had caught my sarcasm. Thank God for smart women. "Itachi may be well enough to be taken from the hospital, but he's definitely not well enough to go without medical attention. He'll have to stay with me and Sasuke-kun for a while."

"What?" Ino and Sasuke whined in unison, the latter just walking into the room as Haruno's conclusion was voiced.

She nodded and I actually found myself grateful to her. She may have been one of my enemies at one point in time or another, but in this world at least she was on my side... shit! That was her plan! To rope me into trusting her enough that she could get all of Akatsuki's deepest, darkest secrets from me! And I'd almost fallen for it, too...

Ino pouted and Sasuke stood in the doorway with a scowl that could have reduced even the most cold-blooded of people to shivers. I eyed him and then looked to Haruno who was avoiding looking at her supposed boyfriend. She simply smiled at me half-heartedly. And then she turned to Ino.

"I'm really sorry, I know you were looking forward to this, but I'm sure you'd put Itachi's health above all other things," she told the blond, a meaningful tone to her voice. Her tone sounded almost sarcastic, as though she didn't really believe that Ino was capable of putting others before herself.

Ino pouted and very reluctantly agreed. "Alright..."

Haruno nodded and pulled out a bag, pulling a set of clothes from it. "I took the liberty of going to your and Ino's apartment and got you some clothes to change into. Sasuke can help you."

"I don't need help," I replied, letting Haruno come forward and place a pair of slippers beside the bed so that my feet wouldn't have to touch the cold floor. "I can dress myself perfectly fine on my own."

"Oh, we have no uncertainties about that, we're completely confident in your ability to dress yourself," she corrected almost patronizingly, "It's just that your legs aren't yet strong enough to support your bodyweight."

I glowered at her (I had to remind myself that she was evil—well, evil against Akatsuki, anyway) and placed my feet in the slippers, determined to do this on my own. No Konoha shinobi was going to put me through the indignity of helping me in the most simplest of acts and I made sure to voice that resolution.

Ino and Sasuke eyed me with confused curiosity and Haruno sighed, gesturing with a wave of her hand for me to continue.

I pushed off of the bed and smirked with satisfaction when I managed to stay upright. "See? I told you I—" My knees buckled suddenly and without any warning and my head slammed into the bedside table.

Darkness greeted me, laughing at my show of powerlessness.

Fuck...

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When I awoke, I was in a bed that was much more comfortable than the hard, lumpy hospital bed and my aching skull was resting in a not-too-hard-but-not-too-soft pillow that seemed fluffed to perfection. I just wanted to snuggle into the bed and sleep some more, but something kept me from unconsciousness.

I was in Konoha... that reminder kept me from sleep.

I sat up and looked around the small room. It was littered with knickknacks and framed pictures of different people, but there were no clothes or items that would show that the room was often used. Guest bedroom, I assumed.

Then, a light shone in my eyes and I looked over to see that the curtains had been pulled to the side of the window, showing a lovely view of... of... what _was_that?! It was like a mixture of the Hokage tower and a lamp pole. I eyed the big metal tower and wondered just what it was that I was looking at.

"I swear, this is all about keeping Itachi healthy," I heard Haruno say with what sounded like annoyance, "No ulterior motives or anything like that. Like I said, he doesn't even remember what..." She paused and there was a new tone in her voice when she finished, "What happened before the accident."

"Of course he doesn't," Sasuke said with a scoff, "And I hope you're telling the truth. Like I told you before, you can leave me for any goddamn person on this planet but him. You leave with him and you know what will happen."

Silence.

There was the sound of the doorknob turning and I quickly lay back down, pulling the blankets over my head to make it look like I was still sleeping. I forced my body to relax and closed my eyes, training all my other senses on my surroundings.

There was a new weight on the bed, the sound of soft breathing, soft, warm knuckles caressed my cheek and I forced my body not to react to the very first soft, gentle touch I had ever felt in my entire life. Then, lips pressed against my temple and soft, sweet-smelling hair fell in front of my face, trying to delight me with the scent of strawberries and a slightly headier scent of... of Haruno Sakura.

"I love you..." There was that soft whisper and then a single tear fell on my cheek. "And I'm sorry..."

* * *

A/N: ... *snickers* You're all probably really confused right now X3


	6. Unfaithful

A/N: Yayz! This chapter was much easier to write, so that's why there's a quicker update. Also I wanted to make up for the really slow update last time... n.n; So, here you go! And there's the beginnings of some very light ItaSaku-ness in this one! And, from now on, there'll be plenty more to come! XD

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I made sure not to allow what I'd heard that night to affect me. I remained stoic and detached from the people who often came to visit me. Of course, since this was, apparently, Haruno's and Sasuke's home, they were the ones to visit me most often with food, drinks, things for entertainment and other such offerings. Ino came almost as often, but not quite. I often heard Haruno denying her entry when she thought I was asleep.

What she didn't seem to anticipate was that I had trained my mind from the time I was very young to be a light sleeper and so I was able to awake at the slightest disturbance. That's how I noticed that Haruno's warm tears, soft touches and loving words weren't only bestowed upon me that first night. She came in every night, crying, to touch me and whisper things she thought I didn't hear.

"I love you... I miss you... I need you... but he's insane, my love. If he knew of what I'm doing, he'd surely kill us both. But I can't help it. I love you, I need you. Oh, Itachi, my Itachi... if only you would look at me with such soft eyes like you did before. Now, though... you're cold and you're cruel. You're not the same and it breaks my heart."

I worked very hard to resist the loving caresses, the tender words and the feeling of warmth that caressed me every time a tear fell on my cheek or her hand touched my skin. I told myself that she probably knew that I was awake and was trying to screw with my head as she had been all along. This was just another stage in her plan.

And then, finally, when I could walk again without others to assist me, I went into the bathroom adjoining the room that belonged to me and looked in the mirror. I was naked from the waist up and the first thing my eyes were drawn to was the scar on my left shoulder where a broken bone had supposedly broke through the skin during my "accident".

There were no burns, no gaping holes; the scar wasn't even over my heart. Okay, perhaps I'd exaggerated the pain, because the pain had been excruciating.

My eyes met the gaze staring back at me in the mirror and it felt as though I was looking at a completely different person with my face. My skin, once fair and unblemished, was slightly more tanned from days out in the sun and, despite my young age, I had laughter lines in the corners of my eyes.

My eyes narrowed on the offending lines. What did I have to smile about?

And then it was time for the ultimate test. I tried to focus my chakra to my eyes and activate my Sharingan. One moment, nothing; second moment, nothing; third moment, nothing. I counted the seconds, waiting for my eyes to fade from the lifeless black voids to the piercing pools of crimson I was so used to... but, by the seventy-eighth second, still nothing had happened.

My eyes widened slightly. A jutsu to lock away my chakra? No, all of my chakra would have to be gone and, if that was the case, then I would be unable to move... in the best case scenario. No, this wasn't a chakra-locking jutsu.

So, there was only one other explanation left: I was dreaming.

It made sense. Sasuke was still a missing-nin as far as I knew and, from what I could remember, he had no tolerance for Sakura. There was also the fact that there was no way Konoha could create something that Haruno called Tokyo Tower just to throw me off.

I couldn't help but smile at my ignorance. What an imagination I had!

I looked out the window at the dark sky and the brightly shining Tokyo Tower and my smile fell. If beauty such as this had existed in the world I belonged in, if people were as soft-hearted as the people here, perhaps... perhaps things would have turned out differently.

I shook my head. I refused to think that. Dwelling in the past was for weaklings and for those who had no future and I was neither of those.

"I-Itachi...?"

I turned to see Sakura standing in my doorway with a tray holding some finger foods. She had a weak, half-hearted smile on her face and, from her red, slightly swollen eyes; I could tell that she had been crying.

"Yes?" I asked, ignoring it for the sake of her dignity. I had seen her cry on occasion since I'd come to stay in her home and every time I tried to ask her why she only brushed off my questions and changed the subject. She seemed to feel bad for crying in front of me and I hadn't the faintest idea why.

"I-I brought you a snack," she told me shakily, placing the tray on the bedside table. "Um... Sasuke-kun... he's decided not to join us for dinner and, unfortunately, the news of his absence postponed my making of the actual meal. I-It's too late to make a decent meal, so I hope you'll accept this."

I looked down at the food and nodded. "Yes. Thank you."

"I'm sorry for not being able to make you a proper supper. Excuse me," she said hastily and turned on her heels, walking away.

Before I had a chance to stop myself, I stepped forward and grabbed her wrist to stop her. When she turned jade eyes glistening with unshed tears my way and looked at me with barely-suppressed misery, I regretted stopping her, but found I couldn't stop myself. "Please, nobody likes to eat alone and I doubt I can eat this much."

She looked torn between rejecting me and throwing her arms around me and sobbing into my chest. She did neither. She simply pulled up the bedside chair that she had brought in days before for the guests that would come to visit me and she nibbled on some of the food she'd prepared especially for me.

"Did you and Sasuke have an argument?" I forced myself to keep my voice impassive.

She nodded, her chin quivering and tears finally rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them away with one of her knuckles and a memory of her brushing those same knuckles against my cheek came to my mind. I shook it off.

"About what?"

She shook her head. "It's... It's nothing important. He and I... we just haven't been seeing things eye to eye lately."

"I see..." I murmured.

She nodded again and then stood. "Please... thank you for the offer to let me eat with you, but I'm afraid I'm not hungry. Excuse me." She left and, this time, I didn't try to stop her. Instead, I turned to look out the window at Tokyo Tower and then down as I saw Sasuke walk down the parking lot and into the arms of an unfamiliar woman.

Was _every_body in this dream world of mine completely unfaithful?

* * *

A/N: Yes! XDD


	7. Torn Apart

A/N: Okay, warning: Asshole Sasuke in this chapter! I know that a few reviewers have told me that they are Sasuke fans and that they would be grateful if I took it easy on him in this story (since I rarely ever do in any of my ItaSaku stories), but Sasuke is going to be a bit of an ass in this story and... well, I'll warn you guys when he turns into a major dickhead... ^^;

Anyway, enjoy!

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I kept telling myself that it was none of my business what Sasuke did or if Haruno knew about it, but I noticed the emptiness to my words everything I thought them.

I wanted to tell Haruno that her beloved(?) boyfriend was a lying, cheating asshole and that he should be kicked out of the house, but, for some reason, the words just wouldn't leave my mouth. Every time I opened my mouth to speak up, a vision of that frail girl sitting in a chair crying as she nibbled on a cracker would pop into my mind and my mouth would close again.

Instead, I decided that I would tell Sasuke that I knew his little secret without wasting the breath. Every time he was in my presence, I watched him, glared at him, and silently told him that, whenever he said he was going out for a jug of milk, I had noticed the full jug in the fridge. He would meet my gaze defiantly, but then would almost immediately look away. He knew his guilt and knew that I knew his guilt and he was squirming about it.

Good. The bastard deserved it.

Sasuke and Haruno would go off to work together since they apparently owned only one "car" and Haruno would take a "bus" back home since Sasuke often went out after work. She would come home from a ten-hour work day and what did she do? She cooked Sasuke's dinner.

I wasn't sure why I was so angry about that, but I soon found out one night when Haruno said she was going to rest her feet for a couple of minutes and wound up falling asleep.

I'd been in my room when I heard Sasuke walk through the door and I was in the hallway when I heard Sasuke curse. I picked up the pace, knowing that an angry Sasuke was a violent Sasuke. It was a part of the Uchiha blood that even a dream could not deny.

"Sakura!" Sasuke exclaimed, "What the Hell?! I come home from a long day at work, hoping to have dinner waiting for me on the table and what do I see? I see you sitting on your fat, lazy ass sleeping while I'm standing here, starving!"

I had half the mind to point out to Sasuke that Haruno was actually rather thin and that I would be surprised if she weighed over a hundred-and-twelve pounds, but I kept my mouth shut, waiting for the chance to say something useful.

"I-I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun," Haruno apologized, rubbing her sleepy eyes, "I didn't mean to fall asleep, it's just that there was a really big surgery today and I'm just really tired and—" She flinched, squeezing her eyes shut as Sasuke's voice boomed over her again.

"_You're_ tired?!" Sasuke all but shouted, "You don't know what tired is! And now I have to make my own goddamn dinner because my girlfriend is a lazy-ass bitch!"

Haruno's jaw quivered and tears welled in her eyes, her hands clasped together at her chest. "S-Sasuke-kun, I can make your dinner. Just let me get changed out of my work clothes and I'll make—"

"Just shut up and go back to sleep," Sasuke cut in and turned into the kitchen.

"But Sasuke-kun!" Haruno exclaimed, rushing after him. There was the sound of glass shattering and I quickly ran into the room to see Haruno cowering in a corner, a broken plate laying in pieces not even a foot away from her and Sasuke standing in the middle of the room, glaring at her.

"I told you," he said through clenched teeth, "To go to sleep." He raised another plate in his hand with the intent to throw it and make Haruno "go to sleep", but I was in front of Sasuke in an instant, holding the wrist with the plate and squeezing it until it fell to the floor and shattered, just like the other one.

"That's enough of your juvenile behaviour, Sasuke," I told him, glaring at him and tightening my hold on his wrist when he tried to pull away from me. "You disgrace yourself with your immaturity. Haruno meant to make dinner, but she fell asleep. If you want to be mad at anybody, be mad at yourself for being such a 'lazy-ass' that you can't prepare your own damn dinner."

Sasuke snarled at me and yanked his wrist out of my hold. "Stay out of this; it has nothing to do with you!"

"Doesn't it?" I asked and smirked when Sasuke's eyes widened.

He jerked a fist back and made an attempt to punch me, but I grabbed the arm and twisted it behind Sasuke's back. When he cried out, I chuckled and pushed him away so that he ran into the counter.

"Now, then," I said, "I want you to get down on your knees and apologize to Haruno. Once you've done that, you will pick up every shard of glass from the plates you so senselessly broke and only then will you eat."

My younger brother glared defiantly at me and I quirked a brow. "Well? What are you waiting for, the Easter Bunny? Get on your knees and beg for forgiveness."

Slowly, he went down on his knees, his eyes not leaving mine until he turned to Haruno and said begrudgingly, "I'm sorry, please forgive me."

Haruno nodded and I headed toward her, picking her up and stepping over the glass, saying, "Come along. Let's leave our Sasuke to clean up his mess."

She shook in my arms and, only when we were in her bedroom with the door closed did she let out the sobs she'd been holding back. I laid her down on her bed and her shoulders shook as she hiccupped, balling her hands into fists and using them to hide her face from me. "I'm so—I'm sorry... I didn't mean for you to... to get involved in that. But when he threw one of the plates my mother gave me, I just... I just..." Her words trailed off as sobs once again racked her body.

I simply nodded my forgiveness as I ran my hands over her arms and legs to search for any wounds Sasuke may have caused. "Are you hurt... anywhere else?" I cursed my eyes for looking at her chest.

She shook her head. "He didn't throw the plate at me. He just meant... meant to scare me." Her sobs slowly faded away and she looked up at me with wide, glistening eyes and I told myself that I hadn't seen the adoration in her eyes. "Your shoulder... you carried me here, but you're not supposed to do any heavy lifting. Let me see."

I shook my head and pushed her back down when she tried to sit up and check the hurt shoulder. There was a dull ache there, but it wasn't unbearably painful so I chose to disregard it. "Just sit down and relax. Go back to sleep and I'll make sure Sasuke does as he's told and come back with some food."

She nodded sleepily. "I-Itachi...?"

I waited patiently, silently telling her to continue.

She shook her head. "Mm-mm. I-I just... wanted to say your name." But I could see the truth in her eyes. She wanted to tell me she loved me.

I ignored the look and nodded, leaving. When I got into the kitchen, any clue to Sasuke's anger had disappeared along with the actually person. I nodded, good riddance, and went into the fridge to make Haruno something to eat.

When I opened the door to one of the cupboards, I found a picture of Sasuke and Haruno and I looked at it grimly. I ripped it in half and tossed it into the garbage.

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A/N: Symbolism? Perhaps...


	8. Boyfriend

A/N: Yay for (extremely late) updates! 8D

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When I awoke, the first thing I noticed was the small piece of paper on my pillow. I sat up and picked up the paper, finding these words on it:

_Meet me in the living room when you wake up and you'll find a surprise there._

—_Sakura _

I quirked a brow and got out of the bed, slowly rotating my left shoulder as I was told to do a few times a day with the hopes that it would be back to normal eventually. When I got into the living room, the only thing that was out of place there was the black winter jacket draped over the arm of the chair.

I eyed it for a moment before approaching the jacket and picking it up. Immediately, a gust of some sort of cologne wafted to my nose and I found it vaguely and very faintly familiar. I pressed it to my nose and breathed the scent in, but I couldn't remember where I'd smelled it before.

"Is it familiar?" I heard Haruno's voice and turned to see her standing in the doorway, a ghost of a smile on her face. "It's yours. I stopped by your and Ino's home this morning and picked it up. I also got some of your old cologne, too."

"So this is mine," I murmured, eying the jacket again.

I saw Haruno nod through the corner of my eye and she said, "The cologne is Chanel's Egoist. It was your favourite scent before the... accident."

Why did she keep doing that, hesitating before the word "accident"? It was beginning to piss me off.

"So, a jacket and some cologne are my surprise?" I asked, not willing to reveal the deep, unexplainable sense of déjà vu that came with this scent.

She shook her head, smiling softly as though she could tell what I was really thinking. "No, those are only things to make it easier for you to get to your surprise. It's outside and it's a bit chilly out there what with the snow and all. So, put the jacket on, grab your shoes and let's go!"

XOXO

Snow. I was used to snow. It was frozen water that came in an assortment of shades of white and sometimes even yellow and it fell from the sky. Kids made snowmen out of them and had snowball fights and older people skated on the ice. Yes, snow was something very familiar to me... but this...

"What, pray tell, is this?" I asked, eying that... thing in front of me.

"It's called a skidoo."

"Okay..." I said slowly, "And what does a skidoo do?"

"It skidoos."

"Is skidoo a verb and a noun at the same time?"

"Are you going to correct my grammar or get on the skidoo? Because I have my heart set on skidooing sometime today... or before the snow melts. I can be flexible."

"Well, see, here's the problem," I said with sarcastic diplomacy, "I do not know what a skidoo is let alone how to use it. So, how am I supposed to use it when I don't know how?"

Haruno sighed and dismounted her machine, moving over to mine. She straddled the seat and scooched forward, grinning at me, "Well? Get on behind me and we can go for a ride!"

Okay, I did have to admit that the idea was rather intriguing and that I was finding it rather hard to deny this woman when she was smiling at me with so much hope. So, I got onto the noun-verb skidoo and Haruno turned it on, revved the engine and we were off.

The first thing I noticed was how I should have worn some sort of face protection because that cold air became cooler when it hit your face at 60 kilometres a minute. The next thing I noticed was just how cool it felt to be on the skidoo. It was amazing! Loud, but fast and it was just so... amazing is the only way to describe it! And here is the last thing I noticed:

I should have been holding tighter to Sakura's waist because, suddenly, I felt my rear moving backward on my seat and Haruno looked back at me with alarm in her eyes.

"Hold on tighter!" she shrieked over the roaring engine, but it was too late. I had curled my fingers around each other to keep me from falling off the machine, but the force that way pushing me backward pried my fingers apart and, suddenly, I was flying.

Flying... flying... and falling? No, no, this wasn't right! I was supposed to fly more! Though, I was supposed to be a ninja, so I try to perform the manoeuvre that would make it so I'd land on my feet... and I did land on my feet. Well, foot. A little too hard though.

There came a sort of cracking sound and I was faintly away of the odd poking feeling beneath the skin on my ankle. I fell flat onto my ass as Haruno stopped the skidoo and rushed toward me, a look of complete and utter horror on her face.

"Are you okay, Itachi? Does anything hurt? Here, let me get my first-aid kit."

"No, I'm fine, it's just—AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!" And then the pain set in.

Haruno pursed her lips and quickly began digging through a white metal box with a red cross on the lid, pulling out several items before finally making it to a cell phone.

"Yes, I'll be needing an ambulance. Yeah, my boyfriend sort of broke his ankle."

_Boyfriend?!_

* * *

A/N: o.o Uh-oh..._  
_.


	9. Haruno's Revelation

A/N: Finally! An update! o.o

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I could feel myself changing...

"I am _sooooo _sorry!" Haruno wailed, squeezing my hand so hard it felt about ready to snap. "I should have told you to hold on tightly before I even started the stupid skidoo. Are in a lot of pain? Oh, why am I even bothering to ask? Of course you are! I am _soooooooo _sorry!"

I lay in a ratty old cot in a tiny cabin, the only source of heat coming from an old wood-burning stove, with my injured leg splinted and elevated and my eyes drooping closed thanks to the pain-killers found in the first-aid kit on one of the skidoos. Haruno's words echoed distantly in my head, a faint lullaby to my inattentive ears. I felt the corners of my mouth quirk upward in the closest thing I'd had to a smile in a very long time. This made me wonder. Why was it Haruno's antics that were causing me to smile so suddenly?

While I'm on the subject, it may have been the pain killers that made me act different, feel different—_be_ different—, but still, it worried me just how good it felt to be a normal person. I was remembering things, seeing things and feeling things that I had never experienced before. When did I ever have a dog named Yoshi? When would I have ever cried when he ran away and have my father comfort me? Why would I participate in a "hot dog" eating contest and why did I laugh when I lost? ... Why did I feel this odd affection for Haruno? Why was I noticing just how cute she looked when she was upset?

"I am so, so, sooooo sorry!"

I smiled softly, murmuring, "Fine..."

"No, it _isn't_ fine! This is far from fine! If it were any farther from fine, you'd be dead!"

"It's a fractured ankle, not a brain tumor."

"But it was _my fault_!"

"Do you act this way with all of your patients?"

"Uh, no?"

"With Sasuke?"

"... Well, um, see, the thing about that is—"

"Yes or no?"

She sighed. "... No."

"Then don't do it for me. I don't need special attention and I'm sure that Sasuke will get angry if he sees you like this for me. He seems rather... troubled." This wasn't exactly a secret, I supposed. I mean, he was rather troubled in the shinobi world, also. And besides, he had tried to kill Haruno with fine china and if that didn't scream 'troubled' nothing did.

Haruno seemed to agree. "Yeah, I know... b-but I can't help it! I mean, how can I not want to do this sort of thing with the man I l—"

My eyes shot open and I looked at Haruno wide-eyed, my jaw hanging open. "Uh... what?"

Her face turned red and she quickly amended, "Th-This sort of thing with the man I-I... l-look up to with such admiration."

I sighed and watched as she stood to stare out the window as she whispered, "The ambulance should be here soon. Maybe I should go wait outside. She put her jacket on and was at the door in moments and the only thing I could think to do was stop her.

"Tell me what happened during that car wreck."

She froze and whispered, "I already did."

"I want the truth this time."

"Wh-What makes you think I haven't already?"

I sighed and sat up. "If you would just tell me the truth, I could help you. It has to do with Sasuke, even an idiot can see that, but what happened? A fight? Sasuke just cracked? Did we have some sort of love tryst?" I had to admit that all of the ideas had merit.

"All three," Haruno answered quietly, staring at the floor, "You and I made love just once... a-a few months before the wreck."

"So, Sasuke found out and snapped?"

"Something like that."

"I don't want to hear 'something like that'," I growled impatiently, "I want to know what happened."

Tears welled in her eyes and she quickly wiped them away. "I... I became pregnant. Sasuke-kun had been so happy about it until we found out that I was two months along and the time our darling baby was conceived, he had been out of town. He quickly put the dots together and... h-he'd always been the type to take his anger out physically, but, this time, he was especially brutal. He... He killed our baby!" She choked back a sob, burying her face in her hands. "He forced you into the car and drove away. The car careened off a ditch and Sasuke-kun used the fact that it was both snowing _and_ raining as an explanation.

"But, instead of killing you, he put you into a coma and after that he was never left alone long enough to do the job right. And, even if he was, he would get caught without an alibi."

So, Sasuke _did_ try to kill me... just not in the way I remember.

She straightened her shoulders and held her chin high to pick up the pride her tears were leaking away and said in as strong a voice as she could manage, "I love you, Itachi."

My brow furrowed and I was at a complete for what to say. What was I supposed to say to something like this?

But Haruno opened her mouth to speak again, only to be interrupted by a loud "Hiiiiiiya!" and the door was thrown open to show a busty blond wearing designer ski gear. Ino. Despite the fact that she had been in such a mad dash to get here, she had apparently had time to squeeze herself into the skin-tight suit, pull her hair back so not a single strand was out of place and apply her make-up perfectly.

She sighed with relief and exclaimed, "Itachi-kins! I was so worried about you!" She rushed forward and threw her arms around me tightly, exclaiming, "The hospital had to notify your next-of-kin that you were in an accident and they called me! And when I heard that Sakura got you into an accident—shame on you, Sakura!—I had to rush over here! It seems I even got here faster than the ambulance!"

I looked over Ino's shoulder to see Haruno staring at me with pain in her eyes. She nodded slightly and turned, walking out of the cabin.

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A/N: Well, now you know why Itachi has amnesia! Surprised? Happy? Sad? Angry? Unimpressed? I won't know unless you tell me!


	10. I Love Her

A/N: An update within 48 hours of my last update! o.o It's a miracle!

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"Don't you worry a single little bit!" Ino said, as chipper as ever as she shoved a pillow under my head and pushed my injured leg onto a pillow as soon as we made it to my bedroom, "I'll take care of you since a _certain woman_ can't."

"Well, in her defence, it wasn't her fault I was injured. I shouldn't have landed the way I did."

"Still!" she huffed, "It's not fair that my Itachi-kins should have to suffer! I mean, you have amnesia, of course you don't remember how to skidoo! She should have kept that in mind!"

My eyes narrowed and I said, "Oh, about that—"

"And, besides, what was she doing taking you out just the two of you in the first place? Who does she think she is; your girlfriend? No way, that's me!"

"It's funny you should mention that because I—"

"The least she could have done was invite me! I mean, I would have loved to go skidooing too and I could have kept you from getting hurt like a good—"

"We're over," I interrupted, growling impatiently.

She froze mid-rant to gape at me, her eyes wide, her cheeks flushing, her jaw hanging open. "Wh... What did you just say?"

"I don't want to date you."

"B-But Itachi-kins, I—"

"Don't call me that."

She snapped her mouth closed and eyed me with disbelief. "A-Are... Are you serious?"

I nodded. "Yes."

Her surprise quickly drained into anger and she stomped her foot, exclaiming, "Fine! That's fine with me because, while you were in your coma, I cheated on you with that Sasori friend of yours!" She whirled around and rushed off before I could say anything else.

I sighed, feeling liberated from one of the Baines of my existence. I didn't know I would regret this decision until later that night...

* * *

"Ino says you two were alone in the cabin," I heard Sasuke tell Sakura from the other room. I was stuck in my room, unable to walk without crutches and filled with too much pride to degrade myself by using such silly things and so I was stuck listening to the ensuing argument between my brother and the woman who apparently loved me—the woman I couldn't tell whether I liked back or not, "She said you two had seemed to be in the middle of a very severe conversation. What sort of conversation was it?"

"I was apologizing for hurting him and he was telling me not to worry about it."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"I don't think I believe you, Sakura," Sasuke said with what sounded like frustration. "And I don't much care for the idea that you might be lying to me so I suggest you tell me exactly what happened or I might become angry."

Silence.

"Well?"

Silence.

"You should know better than anybody just how limited my patience is, Sakura. Now tell me the truth!"

"I... I..." Haruno fumbled for words, "I... He... We... and Ino, she..." Silence. "He doesn't love me, so you don't have to worry about anything. If I didn't know better, I'd think you did this on purpose, caused his amnesia so he'd forget his love for me. Surely you're getting much more enjoyment out of this than the thought of his death!"

"Well, it's what a trollop like you deserves, isn't it? I had offered you a happy life and you decided to whore yourself off to my brother instead. Serves you right."

There was the sound of skin hitting skin... somebody had slapped the other and by the tense silence following, I'd imagine that Sasuke had been the receiver. Then, a few moments later, Haruno screamed and there was a crash and a thump.

I jumped up, forgetting my pride, and grabbed my crutches, hobbling as quickly as I could into the other room. Haruno lay on the floor, her hair covering her face and her back rising and falling with her rapid breathing. Sasuke stood over her with a knife in hand, his face red with rage.

"You fucking bitch!" he spat angrily, raising the hand with the knife and about to plunge it into her.

"Don't!" I cried, now forgetting my injured ankle and dropping one of my crutches so I could run across the room. I swung the one crutch and winced as it made a cracking sound and broke from the harsh impact of hitting Sasuke in the face.

Sasuke went flying and landed half-way across the room in a heap. I paid him no mind, lifting Haruno into my arms and holding her close to inspect her injuries. Her lower lip was broken and bleeding and one of her eyes was already swollen shut. She reached up with a trembling hand and caressed my cheek, tears falling from her eyes... and she smiled.

This was when I finally knew. Staring into her bruised and broken face, seeing those tears in her eyes and yet seeing a smile because I was with her... how could I not love her? How could I not want to protect her always?

"I love you," I whispered, wiping the tears from her cheeks. It was the first time I had ever said such a thing and I found that it was the first time I actually _could_ say it because this was the first time it could ever be true.

Her smile widened and she replied, "I... I love you, too."

I leaned down and kissed her gently, minding her busted lip, and moved up to kiss the tip of her nose. She giggled weakly and more tears fell from her eyes.

But then, suddenly, her eyes widened and she screamed, shrilly, "ITACHI, LOOK OUT!"

I turned slowly, my eyes widening as Sasuke screamed, coming at me with the crutch in hand. He swung it and I found I couldn't react, taking the full-force of the swing to my head. There was a burst of light in the back of my eyes and everything went dark.

"ITACHI!" Haruno shrieked.

And, with that, I fell unconscious.

A/N: O.O ... Um... please review?


	11. The End

We're nearing the end of the story, folks!

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In order for one thing to begin, another has to end. For a new life to begin I had to die... but what if that new person is the same just... different? Changed? What if... What if I was right all along and I didn't really die in the shinobi world? What if this was all just some horrible dream and, once I died here, I would wake up from a coma in Konoha?

What if Tokyo wasn't real? What if Haruno wasn't real? What if _my_ Haruno wasn't real? I wondered these things as I lay unconscious, unable to open my eyes and yet unable to block out the sounds of Haruno's fearful screams.

"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun, please!" she shrieked, "You're going too fast, slow down! Please, Sasuke-kun, just please stop the car! This isn't right!"

Sasuke cackled and I heard the engine roar as it accelerated.

My eyes fluttered open and I looked blearily around me until I remembered where I was. A car, _Sasuke's_ car, speeding down a dark, lonely highway in the middle of nowhere. Tokyo was nowhere to be seen. Where was Tokyo? Were there farther lands? Was Sasuke taking us to these farther lands? Just how far was he taking us and, the question I feared the most was what he planned to do to us.

Sasuke was crazy, that was obvious, but just how crazy was he? Did he plan to kill all three of us just to sate his jealous wrath? Did he love Haruno so much? No, that wasn't it. He couldn't care less about Haruno, it was me he wanted. He hated me, just like in the world of shinobi and he wanted to keep me miserable until my hopefully-untimely death. Yes, he really was crazy.

So, what was I to do? What _could_ I do? Did I just sit back and enjoy the ride, hope for the better side of my brother to win out or did I kill my brother and save Haruno? What did I have more faith in, Sasuke's conscience or Haruno's love?

That was an easy one.

I could feel myself awakening. No, not literally, but spiritually. I found myself thinking like a shinobi would, seeing like a shinobi would, acting like a shinobi would. The first thing I inspected was our surroundings. We were driving way too fast on a deserted highway, moving dangerously close to the edge over a steep ditch in the pouring rain. Okay, that was a very bad place to be, but I didn't allow myself to dwell on it. I had to check everything.

The car was spacious with a light on the ceiling that barely illuminated the area, but it was enough for me to see. Haruno was the only one wearing her seatbelt and thank God she was. If Sasuke had to see her doing it up this late in the game, he would know something was up. So, I turned my eyes a fraction of an inch in her direction and flicked my eyes to the buckle of her seatbelt, tapping it with my finger. She seemed to understand what I meant and didn't dare disobey me.

"I love you," I whispered so softly Sasuke couldn't hear over the humming engine. Haruno probably couldn't hear it, but she seemed to have a gift for reading lips because her eyes widened and tears welled in them. She knew what my plan was.

I tapped the belt buckle once more and gave her a tiny nod and she closed her eyes, whimpering with pain, fear, sorrow, loss and... love.

I think I may have been crying too. I wasn't sure because of the adrenalin roaring through my veins, but I was pretty sure. I loved Haruno, I loved Tokyo, I loved skidooing even if it meant breaking my ankle. I loved waking up to see breakfast-in-bed and Haruno's smiling face. I loved everything about this world, but... but now it was time for me to go.

For the first time in my entire life, I was going to do something unselfish. I was going to sacrifice myself for somebody else... for, how could Haruno's life really begin without another's ending—without Sasuke's ending? Without _mine_ ending?

I slowly slid forward, millimetre by millimetre, inch by inch, taking me a few minutes to manage to get close enough to carry out my plan.

Then, moving as quickly as I would have in the world of shinobi, I lunged forward and wrapped my arm around Sasuke's neck and pulled it tightly against the seat. My younger brother let out a yelp of surprise and then a choked, pain-filled noise as I strangled him.

The car swerved one way and then another way, the right way. As quickly as I could, I let Sasuke go and pushed him forward so that his forehead slammed against the dashboard and his leg let out an automatic reflex from his brain trauma, hitting the break with sudden force.

I gave one last look at Haruno's horror-filled face as I was thrown from my seat, propelled forward and forward, flying through space for what felt like millennia. I then looked forward just as time sped up again and I heard the sound of shattering glass and my head suddenly seemed to cave in. But still I continued to fly until I landed on the cold wet ground.

I coughed, feeling glass digging painfully into my head. I couldn't move, it was hard to breath, I couldn't see anything accept for bright, bright stars all over. How was it possible? How could I see stars through all that rain? How could I feel their glow when I was so certain I would die? Was this Heaven? Was this Heaven's light shining down on me?

I smiled and reached forward. Not physically. No, I still couldn't move, but I could feel something big... my essence—my _soul_—get sucked from my body, searching for those stars, hoping to touch just one.

I promised myself that the star I touched I would name Sakura and it would be the most beautiful star of them all.

"ITACHI!" Haruno shrieked, but it was too late. I had touched the star and named it Sakura...

And, with that, I died.

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A/N: Okay, so I know from past experience that I am going to get A LOT of hate comments about this chapter and all I have to say is bring it on! XDD I can take it! I mean, I think the flow of it is fairly perfect (if not, pretty damn close!) and I really like how it's written, so as long as you don't bash my writing, you can tell me how much you love Itachi and how the two should be together forever! Go ahead! Lay it on me! XP


	12. Reality

A/N: The second-last chapter ^^

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This may sound completely and totally anti-climactic, but the truth isn't always exciting or magnificent. The truth is sometimes... well... boring. So, despite the anti-climax to the following words, here it is anyway: This is when I woke up. I cried out in agony and misery, my eyes shooting open only to close when a bright bolt of lightning lit up the stormy sky. Rain pelted my skin, drenching me and I felt numbed from the cold.

I looked around, trying to figure out where I was only to see nothing. Without the lightning, there wasn't a single thing that could be seen and I groaned. Where was I? Why did my chest feel so hollow and what happened to Haruno?

"We have to get him out of here!" somebody shouted, their voice muted slightly from the pouring rain, "He'll catch pneumonia and die at this rate and his wound is deep! We can't afford to have him die!"

"We should just leave him to die!" another argued, "Nobody will miss him, anyway!"

"We can't! We need to interrogate information out of him before he dies! There are protocols to be followed, laws to be obeyed! If we break them, then we're no better than he is! Now, there's a cave over by that cliff, so why don't we all camp out in there and we'll head out when the storm clears?"

"You mean to tell me I have to share a cave with him?"

"Oh, don't be so immature! He's unconscious, remember, and he's going to die anyway!"

"Yeah, but..."

With that, my eyes drifted closed and I could hear no more. I was too tired, too weak, in too much pain and yet still so numb. How could that be? Where was this pain coming from? Was it the rain in my eyes or was I really crying? Why was the only name running through my mind as I drifted into slumber "Sakura"?

_Why?_

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The next I opened my eyes, I was cloaked in warmth and I felt as though I was in an embrace, arms around me, holding me tight. I leaned into the warmth and sighed, imagining Haruno beside me. Oh, how I missed her. Where was she? Was she okay? Was she the one holding me?

I tried to turn to see who was with me, only to feel an immense amount of pain in my chest. I couldn't move a single inch without pain shooting through me. I groaned softly.

"Itachi?"

"Haruno..." I whispered, "So much... pain... Sasuke sucks."

Silence... and the arms tightened around me. And then she asked, "Do you remember what Sasuke-kun did? Do you have any recollection?"

"I-I... I was in a car... and you were there. Sasuke drove... had to save you, so I killed Sasuke. Killed myself. Named the star..."

More silence. The arms held me tighter as though comforting me. "You have amnesia," she whispered, "Your memories will come back."

"W-What?" I whispered back, "B-But I remember. Killed Sasuke to save you. I flew through the windshield. You screamed."

"None of that happened, Itachi. Sasuke-kun used his chidori on you and you almost died. I saved you and brought you back to Konoha. All of this stuff about a car accident and you saving me... it was all a dream."

Chidori... Konoha... Amnesia... A dream... A dream? My eyes widened. A dream... A fucking dream! Ignoring the pain, I sat up and turned around to look Haruno in the eye. The look was different. It wasn't soft and open like her eyes had been in Tokyo, they were cloaked, hiding her emotions... like any shinobi would in the presence of an enemy.

"Why are you holding me like this?" I asked, looking around to find myself in a hospital room. I peered out the window to find the familiar buildings of Konoha... Tokyo Tower was replaced with Hokage Tower. It left me feeling nostalgic for Tokyo. "Why am I still alive? Why did you save me?"

"I was holding you like that because you wouldn't seem to stop moving around in bed if I didn't. You were having a bad dream and I didn't want you to reopen your wounds. The reasons why you're still alive and why I saved you are the same: We need you for questioning."

"Questioning...?"

"About the Akatsuki. But you seem to have Amnesia, so that will have to wait, but, for now, lay back down. You shouldn't be moving around like this or you might reopen your wounds and they're pretty severe. I'm actually surprised you're able to move without crying."

"I don't cry," I lied. I _did_ cry, though... once. I cried when I woke up in the rain. It wasn't the rain in my eyes... it's like... I knew. I knew that my Haruno was gone and I would never see her again. And so I cried. Just the thought of it made me want to cry again.

I didn't.

"Now, come here."

"No."

"I don't intend to harm you."

"That's not what I'm nervous about."

"Well, whatever it is, you can stop and lay down. You need to relax. You've been through a great deal and, the sooner that chest wound heals, the sooner you can get out of here."

"And into a jail cell?"

She didn't answer. She didn't have to because I knew. I was here so I could answer their questions and then die. That was all. That was all it ever could be. I was no longer Haruno's friend... I was an enemy again.

I was a terrorist.

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A/N: I think it sounds a bit forced because I've had a bad writer's block, but I hope it's okay! The next chapter should be done soon! ^^


	13. Epilogue — Farewell

A/N: The final chapter!

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And this brings us to the end of my tale. Anybody who had wished for the end of this story to result with my confessing my feelings to the real Sakura and running away with her to either induct her into Akatsuki or else live a pleasant life with her elsewhere obviously hasn't been hit with the dose of reality that my experience has given me. And so, hopefully, this story will teach you that Fate is a harsh mistress... or that there just isn't any such thing as destiny after all... maybe things just happen for no reason.

Yes... that's true. Shit just happens and there's no real reason for it. Fate and destiny were only created so that people had some force to blame for their own stupid decisions. Again, a reality check was in order.

Anyway, I write this from a prison cell somewhere in central Konoha, using a dying pen and discarded sheets of paper with spewed literary nonsense on the backsides that I had managed to sneak out of Tsunade-sama's office. I write this to pass the time as I wait for my death sentence... I also write this for another reason.

Sakura. I write this for her. She will find this once I am gone and she will read it. If she still remains the same, acting with her heart instead her mind as all Konoha shinobi do, she will find the truth. This is my dying wish.

I want her to know that I died not for my crimes or for simply making mistakes through my anger while I was young, but that I'm dying for her—or rather, the dream version of her who happens to be just the same as the real version. I want her to know that I will be happy in my dying because I will depart blissfully into my dreams where _she_ will be waiting.

And so, good night, sweetest dreams, my love, and wish me a safe trip. If only you could give me a farewell kiss, but I suppose I can survive without it. After all, I am no longer the selfish brute I once was. Only your happiness is important to me and I know all too well that kissing an S-class criminal would not bring you happiness.

So, this is farewell. I love you, my angel, my Haruno... my Sakura.

* * *

Several weeks later, Sakura walked into the empty jail cell, her eyes falling upon a stack of ratty paper. Her brow furrowed and she picked it up, reading the one word on the first page: SAKURA. She blinked in confusion and flipped the page, beginning to read the words.

"Itachi..." she whispered, her fingers smoothing over the pages as tears welled in her eyes... because she knew the truth. She, too, had experienced the dream... and never would again.

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A/N: Okay, so explanations are in order here. It's my belief that "soulmates" (I don't believe in soulmates, but if they were to exist, then they would experience what is described right here) sort of think on the same wavelength and that their thoughts are somewhat connected, a lot like with twins or whatever. And so, because Itachi and Sakura were soulmates, they experienced a shared-dream of a time when they could possibly have a chance of loving each other.

Of course, Sasuke has always been very good at ruining things...

Yes, it is a sad ending! I haven't done one of those since Regret's Mistress back in '07! Three years... my angsty being was not happy with the lack-age of saddly-ever-afters and so I had to sate it's rage or I would go back to being the angsty-emo-freak-girl that I once was! Sorry ^^;

Anyway, please don't be too angry with the ending and understand that this was really the way a story such as this would end. I mean, there needs to be a touch or reality in there somewhere, right? *dodges rotten fruit* T-T

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story just a little bit and that you aren't angry enough that I won't see you in future stories! So, till then,

Italova... OUT!


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